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Raj Babbar hits back at critics: Not an outsider, know Gurgaon’s pulse

May 02, 2024 05:48 AM IST

The Congress candidate for the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat, Raj Babbar,will file his nomination on May 3 in the presence of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, according to the schedule shared by the party

Gurugram: Congress candidate for the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat, Raj Babbar, on Wednesday said that despite generating more than 60 percent revenue for Haryana, the city of Gurugram had shabby civic infrastructure and the amenities for the people were poor. He pointed out that he knew the pulse of the people of Gurugram and it was time that the voters of the city gave the Congress party an opportunity to improve the situation on the ground.

Congress’ Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency candidate Raj Babbar arrives at the Sheetla Mata Mandir in Gurugram on Wednesday. (Parveen Kumar/HT PHOTO)

“The municipal body of this city has one of the highest budgets in the country but there are no amenities for the people. I have seen that the situation gets pretty bad during the monsoon season. The roads and the sewage system are in poor state and need massive upgradation,” he said.

Babbar, who was declared the Congress candidate for the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday evening, visited the Sheetla Mata temple in the city on Wednesday and was joined by a large number of Congress workers and senior party members.

The Congress leader will file his nomination on May 3 in the presence of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, according to the schedule shared by the party.

Babbar said that the people of Gurugram and Haryana had decided to vote for the Congress party in the Lok Sabha elections and also to bring in a Congress government in the state under former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. “Congress governments in the state and at the Centre will bring in improvements and provide basic amenities to the people,” he said.

He added that while the BJP nominee was seeking votes to ensure that the next PM is Narendra Modi for the third time, the Congress in turn was seeking votes to serve the common man. “We work for the poor and underprivileged,” he said.

The Congress candidate also said that he had close connections with Haryana as his family had arrived in Ambala after the Partition. “I am not an outsider. I have relatives in Gurugram and Faridabad and understand the pulse of the city,” he said.

He added that if the need arose, he would visit senior party leader Captain Ajay Singh Yadav, and express his dissatisfaction that the latter did not get the Lok Sabha ticket from Gurugram. “I have worked with him in the past and all of us work for the party. I will meet him as well,” he said, adding that 2024 was a great opportunity for the Congress to work hard and win the parliamentary election in Haryana since the tide was turning against the BJP.

“I don’t want to take names but BJP leaders are seeking votes in the name of PM Modi, which should tell the voters that no development work has happened,” he said.

When asked about the candidature of Raj Babbar from Gurugram, BJP MP Rao Inderjit Singh said that everyone has the right to contest elections but failure to get a local candidate says a lot about the political turmoil within the Congress.

“The Congress candidate is an outsider and this will further help the BJP. People of this region are connected to me as I am local and accessible,” he said.

 
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